Warning: The following article contains details about suicide which some may find distressing
Cerys Lupton-Jones pauses between two doorways.
One door leads into a side room in the Manchester mental health unit where she’s a patient. The other leads into a toilet.
The 22-year-old had tried to end her life just 20 minutes earlier – but no staff are seen on the CCTV footage from inside the unit.
She hesitates for about 30 seconds, walking backwards and forwards. Then she enters the toilet and shuts the door.
The next time she is seen on the footage, doctors and nurses are fighting to resuscitate her.
Cerys dies five days later, on 18 May 2022.
A coroner has concluded that some of the care Cerys was given at Park House, which was run by the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, was a “shambles”.
Staff were meant to be checking on her every 15 minutes.
But the last recorded observation – at 15:00 – had been falsified, saying she had been seen in a corridor. CCTV shows at that point, Cerys was already in the toilet where she would fatally harm herself.
A staff member who was supposed to be looking after her has now admitted to falsifying these records.
Zak Golombeck, coroner for Manchester, said that if someone had stayed with her after the earlier attempt to take her life, what followed may never have happened. He said neglect was likely to have contributed to her death.
Campaigners are calling for an inquiry into the number of deaths at the mental health trust and believe the services are in crisis.
Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust said it “failed her that day, and we are so very sorry that we did not do more”.
Family handout
Cerys was a patient at Park House, which was run by the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Cerys’s parents, Rebecca Lupton and Dave Jones, describe their daughter as a loving young woman who would do anything for her friends. She was studying to be a nurse and was months away from completing her degree, with a job lined up.
She was autistic and had also struggled with her mental health since her teens.
Her family, who lived miles away in Sussex, say the pandemic and the reduction in community mental health support exacerbated Cerys’s problems.
The inquest was told Cerys had tried to take her life in the days running up to her death, spending time in A&E.
She was then readmitted to Park House and put on one-to-one observations for a short time. Later, she was supposed to be checked by staff every 15 minutes.
The inquest heard how, at about 14:35 on 13 May 2022, Cerys was found in a toilet by Mohammed Rafiq, a health support worker who had been assigned to check on her. Cerys had tried to hang herself.
Rebecca Lupton and Dave Jones describe Cerys as a loving young woman
Mr Rafiq and the duty nurse, Thaiba Talib, intervened.
However, the inquest heard the 15-minute observations were not then increased and staff had no proper conversation with her.
The nurse told the inquest she did not believe Cerys meant to seriously harm herself.
She told the coroner she chose not to increase observations on Cerys because she did not want her to feel punished, as she did not like being under observation.
When asked by the coroner if she should have gone with Cerys to her room after the incident and check she was safe, Ms Talib answered: “In hindsight, yes.”
Damning CCTV from inside the unit was described minute by minute in court.
It showed Cerys going into the ward garden at 14:42. The observation record, which says at 14:45 she was in her bedspace, was described by the coroner as “not accurate”.
At 14:54, Cerys walked into another toilet on the ward and closed the door.
Yet Mr Rafiq told the coroner he remembered seeing Cerys at 14:57. He wrote in the observation notes that he had seen her at 15:00 “along the corridor, looking flat-faced”. He then went on a break. In reality, Cerys was still in the toilet.
The coroner told Mr Rafiq that his recollections were wrong, and that he had “falsified” the observation records. Mr Rafiq responded: “I’m afraid so”.
Mr Rafiq said other staff had shown him how to record observations every 15 minutes, even if he hadn’t done them at that time. “That’s how they did it and that’s how I did it”, he told the court.
A new support worker took over the observations at 15:00. There was no verbal handover and, according to Mr Rafiq’s notes, Cerys had just been seen.
The CCTV shows the new support worker checking on other patients. At 15:15 she looked for Cerys.
She could be seen becoming increasingly desperate as she searched the communal areas and ran along the corridor.
At 15:19, she tried the door to the toilet, using a master key to unlock it. She found Cerys inside and immediately raised the alarm.
By that point, 25 minutes had passed since Cerys went into the toilet. She died in hospital on 18 May, five days later.
The coroner said there was a gross failure by Ms Talib to provide “basic medical attention to a person in a dependent position”.
He also found there was a culture of falsifying records on the ward.
The coroner said it was not clear what Cerys’s intention had been. In a narrative conclusion, he recorded that neglect had contributed to her death.
“Cerys was a wonderful, wonderful young person”, her mother Rebecca Lupton said
“I knew it was bad,” Cerys’s mother Rebecca told the BBC, “but listening to the evidence highlighted quite how poor the care was.”
Her father, Dave, says when Cerys was sectioned and taken to the hospital at the start of 2022, they believed it would keep her safe and help her get better. “In fact, it just made everything worse,” he says. “It was the wrong environment.”
“Cerys was a wonderful, wonderful young person. We feel that she would be here today if she’d been given better care by Manchester Mental Health Trust,” Rebecca said outside court, after the coroner gave his conclusion.
Dave described the disbelief and anger as difficult to put into words. “We need more funding for mental health services, more staff, better training and much better oversight.”
Immy Swithern was a patient at the same time as Cerys. They became close friends. She says they tried to make the best out of a bad situation and would talk all day.
She also claims some staff regularly failed to carry out 15-minute safety checks, so they tried to look out for each other.
“I was there to get better, and I was there to have help with that,” she says. “Instead, I was constantly checking on people. On that ward, I think that is the most scared I’ve ever felt in my life.”
Park House mental health unit has since closed. It was replaced by a new £105.9m hospital in November 2024.
The NHS trust said it had “significantly improved” its provision of care and it was grateful to the coroner for “acknowledging the work that has been done to prevent something of this nature from happening again”.
But campaigners claim mental health services in Manchester are in crisis.
Responding to Tuesday’s inquest verdict, the Communities for Holistic, Accessible and Rights-based Mental Health (CHARM) group, says: “It is devastating to hear of yet another young person losing their life as a result of neglect and poor care.”
The group says it is due to meet Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham this week to call for a statutory inquiry into the deaths and the financial crisis in the city’s mental health services.
In October 2022, five months after Cerys death, an undercover BBC panorama programme exposed bullying and the mistreatment of patients at the medium secure Edenfield centre, which was also run by GMMH.
As a result, an independent review was commissioned by the NHS and published in 2024.
It found a “closed culture” at GMMH. It also raised concerns about the number of deaths by ligature.
In 2022, 19 people took their own lives by hanging on mental health units in the UK, five were GMMH patients, the trust itself said that meant it had 26% of all such deaths in the whole country.
If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support in the UK are available at BBC Action Line.
Seniors in some parts of the country say they are being denied COVID-19 vaccinations amid an ongoing spike in cases, leading to rising frustration over new Trump administration policies that are making it harder to get the shots.
Matthew D’Amico, 67, of New York City, said a Walgreens declined to administer COVID-19 vaccines to him and his 75-year-old wife on Friday because they didn’t have a prescription. They’re trying to get vaccinated ahead of a trip.
“I can’t believe we can’t get” the vaccine, D’Amico said in an interview. “I’ve been inoculated a number of times and never had to get a prescription. And it’s just very frustrating that this is where we are.”
He’s not alone in his exasperation. Under the leadership of the vaccine skeptic Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., federal agencies have effectively made it more difficult to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this year. The Food and Drug Administration has only “approved” COVID-19 vaccines for those age 65 and up, as well as younger people with underlying health conditions.
That means across the country, people younger than 65 interested in getting the COVID-19 vaccine must now either consult with a healthcare provider or “attest” to a pharmacy that they have an underlying health condition. It’s a potential hurdle that can make getting the vaccine more difficult and, some health experts worry, prompt even more Americans to eschew getting vaccinated.
As D’Amico can attest, though, being part of a group for whom the COVID vaccine is “approved” doesn’t necessarily guarantee easy access.
“For me to go to my primary [healthcare provider] now and get a prescription, it’s just kind of ridiculous,” D’Amico said.
At least some people younger than 65 are encountering pharmacy staff asking probing questions about their medical conditions.
That happened Friday at a CVS in Orange County, according to 34-year-old Alex Benson, who takes medication that can suppress his immune system.
Besides just protecting himself, he wanted to get vaccinated as he has family members who are at high risk should they get COVID — his mother is immunocompromised, and his mother-in-law had open-heart surgery on Thursday night.
Benson said an employee asked why he thought he was eligible for the vaccine.
“They asked me for either a prescription or they wanted to know … why I felt I needed the vaccination,” Benson said. At one point, a staffer offered to call his doctor to get an authorization for the vaccine.
Benson said he was alarmed by the questions, and started to “feel kind of some desperation to plead my case to the pharmacist.” Another CVS staffer later came over and said further answers weren’t necessary and simply attesting he was eligible was good enough. He eventually got the vaccine.
Still, he felt the experience was dismaying.
“I think easy access should be the policy,” Benson said. “I tend not to get too political, but it seems just rather juxtaposed to me that an anti-regulation administration is using regulation in this way. They’re supposed to be removing barriers to healthcare.”
The vaccine chaos comes as COVID-19 is either increasing or starting to hit its late summer peak. According to data released Friday, there are now 14 states with “very high” levels of coronavirus detected in their wastewater — California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Hawaii and Alaska, as well as the District of Columbia.
Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, the regional physician chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said data continue to show an increase in coronavirus cases.
“Over this past week, we’ve seen an increase in the number of outpatient COVID cases, and even a smattering of inpatient cases,” Hudson said. “It appears that we may be nearing the top of the wave, but it may be another two weeks or so until we truly know if we’re there.”
The rate at which coronavirus lab tests are confirming infection also continues to rise statewide and in the Los Angeles area. For the week ending Aug. 30, California’s COVID test positivity rate was 12.83%, up from 7.05% for the week ending Aug. 2. In L.A. County, the positive test rate was 14.83%, up from 9.33%.
Other data, however, suggest some areas may have reached their summer COVID peak.
In Orange County, the COVID positive test rate was 13.1%. That’s below the prior week’s rate of 18%, but still higher than the rate for the week that ended Aug. 2, which was 10.8%.
In San Francisco, the test positivity rate has been hovering around 9% for the last week of reliable data available. It’s up from 7% a month earlier.
In addition, wastewater data in L.A. County show coronavirus levels declined slightly from the prior week.
“It’s too early to know if this decrease in wastewater viral concentrations is the first sign that COVID-19 activity is peaking or is regular variation typical of this data source,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said.
COVID hospital admissions in California are increasing — with the latest rate of 3.93 admissions per 100,000 residents, up from 2.38.
But they remain relatively low statewide and in L.A. County. The number of L.A. County residents seeking care for COVID-related illness, or who have been hospitalized, “is quite a bit lower than during summer surges in 2023 and 2024,” the public health department said.
A relatively mild summer wave, however, could mean that the annual fall-and-winter COVID wave might be stronger. In July, the state Department of Public Health said that scientists anticipate California would see either a stronger summer COVID wave or a more significant winter wave.
The current confusion over federal COVID vaccine policy has been exacerbated by the chaos at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where Kennedy earlier this year fired everyone on the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and orchestrated the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just 29 days after she was confirmed to the post by the Senate.
Some of Kennedy’s handpicked replacements on the ACIP have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation, according to the Associated Press. And the new interim CDC director — Jim O’Neill, a Kennedy deputy — is a critic of health regulations and has no training in medicine or healthcare, the AP reported.
The CDC hasn’t issued its own recommendations on who should get vaccinated, and that inaction has resulted in residents of a number of states needing to get prescriptions from a healthcare provider for at least the next couple of weeks. In some cases, that’s true even for seniors, as D’Amico found out.
As of Friday, CVS said people need a prescription to get a COVID-19 vaccine, sometimes depending on their age, in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.
CVS couldn’t even offer the COVID-19 at its pharmacies in Nevada as of Friday; they were only available at the company’s MinuteClinic sites, according to spokesperson Amy Thibault.
CVS said it expects to offer COVID-19 vaccines without prescriptions at its pharmacies in New Mexico, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania “soon,” due to recent regulatory changes in each state.
“Right now, all patients in all states need to attest to being eligible for the vaccine in order to schedule an appointment online,” Thibault said. If an adult says they have no underlying health conditions, but do have a prescription from a healthcare provider for “off-label” use of the vaccine, they can get the shot, Thibault confirmed.
On Thursday, Hawaii joined California, Washington and Oregon in launching the West Coast Health Alliance: an interstate compact meant to provide science-based immunization guidance as an alternative to the CDC.
“Together, these states will provide evidence-based immunization guidance rooted in safety, efficacy, and transparency — ensuring residents receive credible information free from political interference,” according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
The statement suggested that the Trump administration was essentially “dismantling” the CDC.
“The absence of consistent, science-based federal leadership poses a direct threat to our nation’s health security,” the statement said. “To protect the health of our communities, the West Coast Health Alliance will continue to ensure that our public health strategies are based on best available science.”
It was not immediately clear, however, whether the formation of the West Coast Health Alliance would make it easier for people to get COVID-19 vaccines at the nation’s largest pharmacy retailers, where many people get their shots.
The federal government needs to act fast to save one of the country’s most important social programs.
As of July, over 53 million Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits. A good number of these recipients rely on the Social Security program for most or, in some cases, all of their retirement income, so it’s hard to overstate just how important the program continues to be.
According to the Nationwide Retirement Institute 2025 Social Security Survey, over 60% of Social Security recipients feel as though they’d be financially vulnerable if there were cuts to Social Security benefits. That’s not too surprising, given how much people rely on the social program.
However, what may be surprising is just how soon cuts to Social Security benefits could happen at the current pace of deficit that the program is running on.
Image source: Getty Images.
How Social Security funding works
Before discussing the likelihood of Social Security benefit cuts, it’s essential to understand how the program is funded, which is through payroll taxes. The current rate is 12.4%, with employers and employees paying 6.2% each, and self-employed people paying the full 12.4%.
This tax revenue is put into the Social Security Trust Fund, which consists of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund. The OASI program pays benefits to retirees, their families, and survivors of deceased recipients; the DI program pays benefits to disabled workers and their families.
The idea is that working-age people pay into the system to support current retirees, with the understanding that once they’re retired, they’ll be on the receiving end of this support.
What’s the likelihood of benefits being cut?
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) 2025 Social Security Trustees Report highlighted that the Social Security program cost $1.485 trillion in 2024, while generating only $1.418 trillion in revenue, leaving a $67 billion deficit for the year. Both major Social Security trust funds have experienced a decline over the past decade.
The same report noted that the OASI trust fund could be depleted by 2033, which would leave the SSA with the ability to pay only 77% of its expected benefits. Considering the number of recipients from the Nationwide report who said cuts would make them financially vulnerable, this is, to put it lightly, far from ideal.
If the current depletion rate continues, the Social Security Trust Fund could be underfunded by more than $25 trillion through 2099 (the DI Trust Fund reserves are not projected to become depleted during this period). If no changes are made, Social Security would need to cut benefits by about 23% beginning in 2034.
According to the Nationwide study, 83% of respondents are concerned about Social Security’s long-term viability, and 74% are worried that the program’s funding could run out in their lifetime. Unfortunately, at the current pace and lack of concrete solutions, these concerns are justified.
What’s causing the current Social Security deficit?
There isn’t a single reason for the current Social Security deficit, but there are four main causes contributing to the problem. The first is that baby boomers are retiring in large numbers, and there aren’t enough tax-paying workers paying into the Social Security program.
The second “problem” is that people are living longer, meaning they’re collecting benefits longer, increasing how much Social Security has to pay out each year. This is good for people, but bad for Social Security.
We’ve also seen an increase in high earners, which means less of their income is being taxed and paid into the program. In 2025, the most income that’s subject to the Social Security payroll tax is $176,100. Any money earned above that is free from the tax.
The last problem is that before the interest rate hike a couple of years ago, interest rates spent a long period at historically low rates. This is a problem for Social Security because the reserves are put into Treasury bonds to earn interest. Low interest rates mean less money earned on these reserves.
All hope isn’t lost
To end on a more positive note, it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time that Social Security has faced funding issues, and in previous times, the federal government has been able to “fix” the issue.
The American political environment is a bit more unpredictable nowadays, so I can’t say for certain if the same will happen. However, given the program’s importance to the livelihoods of millions of Americans, one would assume that it would become a priority for politicians on both sides of the aisle.
They won’t finish this season with the best record in history, as they could win every one of their remaining games and still not realize the 120-win season that was envisioned for them.
They might not even finish this season with the best record in the National League — or in their own division, for that matter.
The Dodgers look beatable.
Their perceived vulnerability didn’t necessarily inspire the frenzied action around baseball before the trade deadline, but it certainly didn’t discourage it either.
With blood in the water and the World Series field wide open, several contenders moved to prepare their rosters for October. No team changed as much as the San Diego Padres, who are suddenly positioned to turn the Dodgers’ title defense into a humiliation exercise.
“We went in knowing, OK, we have a team that can compete and play deep and ultimately we have these needs and let’s go fill them,” Padres general manager A.J. Preller said.
Mason Miller, who throws a fastball with an average velocity of 101 mph, will turbocharge what was already the No. 1 bullpen in baseball. Ramon Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn will improve the balance of a top-heavy lineup featuring Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. Freddy Fermin will address a hole at catcher. JP Sears and Nestor Cortes will add depth to a rotation on the mend.
Particularly revealing of the Padres’ ambitions was what Preller didn’t do. He didn’t trade closer Robert Suarez, an impending free agent. He didn’t trade underperforming former All-Star pitcher Dylan Cease, who will also hit the market this winter.
The Padres were only three games behind the Dodgers at the trade deadline, making Preller’s team a legitimate threat to overtake them in the division and cost them a top-two seed in the NL, for which the reward is a first-round bye in the playoffs.
The danger didn’t compel the Dodgers to act, their relative inactivity in this situation reflecting the contrasting philosophies of the two organizations.
The Dodgers make deals on their terms. When president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman overpay for players — the combined $85 million the Dodgers spent over the winter on relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates is an example — it’s usually by accident.
The mentality often results in the market dictating to the Dodgers what they can and can’t do. For better or worse, the Padres have elected a proactive approach.
Landing Miller required to part with Leo De Vries, an 18-year-old shortstop who is widely considered one of the five best prospects in the entire sport.
Preller knew what he gave up.
“He’s going to be a very good major league player,” Preller said of De Vries.
Preller has done this before, He traded Max Fried and he traded Emmanuel Clase and he traded Josh Naylor. When he acquired Juan Soto at the 2022 trade deadline, he sent the Washington Nationals a package that included three future All-Stars in CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and James Wood.
Impact players have considerable price tags, and they’re higher in some years than in others. The Dodgers examined the prices of the best relievers and outfielders available, and they settled for more affordable options. The Padres went for it, with Preller saying he was confident the team’s scouting and player development departments would once again replenish the farm system.
“In different points in time over the last few years, we’ve been able to be in this position, to be able to make these types of decisions and calls,” Preller said. “It’s just because we have good players that other teams want.”
The Padres weren’t alone. The two New York teams reconstructed their bullpens, the Philadelphia Phillies found a closer in Jhoan Duan and the Seattle Mariners added some pop to their lineup by dealing for Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor.
Why wouldn’t these teams be bold?
The Dodgers couldn’t make this a one-horse race. Their inability to separate themselves from the pack presented competitors with opportunities to pass them by at the trade deadline. Some of them might have.
Ozzy Osbourne tragically passed away on 22 July aged 76
Ozzy Osbourne’s family recently joined fans in paying an emotional farewell to the heavy metal star during an emotional procession in Birmingham.
Black Sabbath legend Ozzy tragically passed away on 22 July aged 76. The family statement announcing his death read: “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.
“We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.”
Appearing on Friday’s Good Morning Britain, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who has worked with both Ozzy’s wife Sharon and his son Jack, shared her condolences to the grieving family.
Ekin-Su, 30, was on Celebrity Big Brother with Sharon in 2024, where the two were friendly and bonded on the show.
Ozzy Osbourne’s family recently joined fans in paying an emotional farewell to the heavy metal star(Image: Getty Images)
Meanwhile, former Love Island star Ekin-Su is currently starring on Cooking with the Stars with Jack, 39, which was filmed before the death of his father.
Appearing on Friday’s GMB, Ekin-Su was asked about the heartbreaking news by hosts Kate Garraway and Adil Ray.
Ekin-Su said of Sharon: “She is such a motherly figure and I think she’s just so loving. Honestly, I feel like he was everything to Sharon and the family so for this to happen so tragically I just want Sharon to look after herself.”
Host Kate, 58, then jumped in saying: “She looked very vulnerable” to which Ekin-Su repeated: “Very vulnerable!” Kate continued: “We all wanted to hug her.”
Ekin-Su added: “Bless her, I’m sending all my love to their family. I mean Jack, such a sweet guy! A loss is always heartbreaking and when it’s such a known person and it’s such an iconic person that’s passed away, it hits us all.”
Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who has worked with both Ozzy’s wife Sharon and his son Jack, shared her condolences to the grieving family(Image: ITV)
Host Adil, 51, then said: “It must be difficult for them as they have lived such a public life, of course all those reality TV shows that they did, suddenly these moments, these incredibly personal moments, ‘we want to see the funeral, we want to feel part of it’, but for them I wonder can you come out of that and really grieve on a personal level.”
To which Ekin-Su responded: “We are all obviously involved in it but I feel like that is quite private though and I feel like they do need some privacy and some time to grieve privately as well.”
It comes as Ozzy’s family recently joined fans in paying an emotional farewell to the heavy metal star during an emotional procession in Birmingham.
Black Sabbath legend Ozzy tragically passed away on 22 July aged 76
Sharon, who was married to the musician for more than four decades, became emotional as she stepped out of a car to view the hundreds of floral tributes and balloons laid around the Black Sabbath bench.
The former X Factor judge, 72, was helped out of the first vehicle in the cortege by her and Ozzy’s son Jack, who joined her at the event along with Ozzy and Sharon’s daughters Aimee and Kelly. At one emotional point, the family all raised their hands in a peace sign while paying their respects.
The family members wiped away tears at the bench as they inspected tributes, with members of the crowd shouting “we love you Ozzy”.
Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV X.
Serial con-artist Samantha Cookes assumed multiple identities and made up wild stories. BBC’s documentary tonight sheds a light on the true crime case
06:00, 08 Jul 2025Updated 06:07, 08 Jul 2025
Fraudster Samantha Cookes has been dubbed ‘Bad Nanny’(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/ Alleycats TV)
Like an evil Mary Poppins, serial con-artist Samantha Cookes posed as a nanny and scammed families with disabled children – even taking their money for a fake trip to Lapland. Gripping two-parter Bad Nanny (Tues 8th July, BBC1, 10.45pm) rakes over all the shocking details of this true crime case, that saw Cookes assume multiple identities, including a child therapist, an arts teacher and a surrogate mother, to con families in the UK and Ireland between 2011 and 2024.
She even posed on TikTok as Carrie Jade Williams, a terminally ill woman and disability activist, winning the sympathy and support of thousands. But when one of her posts went viral, some followers became suspicious and began to dig, discovering her real name was Samantha Cookes, a fraud with multiple aliases and a troubling history.
Speaking for the first time, Katie and Luke in North Yorkshire describe how she posed as a surrogate mother, defrauding them of their savings.
Katie and Luke Taylor were scammed(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/ Alleycats TV)
Mother-of-three Layla describes how she believed she was hiring ‘Lucy Hart’, a Mary Poppins-like au pair at their home in County Offaly. When Layla became suspicious, ‘Lucy’ vanished, leaving an ominous note that left Layla fearing for her children. And Dublin mums Lorraine and Lynn reveal how they hired ‘Lucy Fitzwilliams’ as a child therapist for their disabled children, eventually handed over desposits for a fake trip to Lapland. ‘Lucy’ also told wild stories, pretending she was the 3M company heiress and was set to marry a pastor. Lorraine says: “She took advantage of people’s trust and their emotions and vulnerability.”
Bad Nanny is airing on BBC One tonight at 10.45pm
There’s plenty more on TV tonight – here’s the best of the rest…
TRAINWRECK: THE REAL PROJECT X,NETFLIX
The Trainwreck documentary series revisits headline-making events that went terribly wrong. This latest instalment recounts what happened when a teen’s birthday invite accidentally went viral on Facebook, leading to a full-blown riot. In 2012, a teenage girl in the small Netherlands town of Haren created a Facebook event for her sixteenth birthday party, but made the page public instead of private.
Inspired by a love of the Hollywood movie Project X, which saw three high school seniors throw a party that spiralled out of control, Dutch teenagers made the event go viral, and soon thousands of people had RSVP’d. Despite warnings, police and local authorities didn’t seem to think that anyone would turn up, so no provisions were made to entertain the 3,000 young people who arrived in Haren. Before long the quiet Dutch town became host to a night of drunken chaos, the birthday girl fled her home and riot police were deployed. If it wasn’t true, you’d never believe it…
SHARKS UP CLOSE WITH BERTIE GREGORY,NAT GEO WILD, 8pm
Wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory is a braver man than most as he gets extremely up close to some scary-looking sharks. Arriving on the coast of South Africa, he says: “I have dived with a lot of sharks around the world, but I have never seen the most famous and the most feared – the Great White. I’m going to try something that my mum really doesn’t want me to do. I’m going to dive with a Great White Shark without a cage.”
There is only one place where this is possible, thanks to its shallow waters, which prevent sharks from attacking from below, and clear visibility, which allows the team to see the predators coming. It still doesn’t feel completely reassuring. Bertie works alongside local shark spotters, a community-led initiative developed in response to past fatal shark attacks. Their shared mission is to explore how humans and Great White sharks might coexist in these waters. With a cage, I’d suggest…
A YORKSHIRE FARM,5, 7pm
As a new series kicks off, farmers Rob and Dave Nicholson pick sloes from their farm hedgerows before turning them into artisanal chocolate. JB Gill takes a trip to the rolling hills of Wales, visiting a farmer who is reaping the rewards from a rather unusual diversification – he’s making medicine from daffodils. And on his farm in the Cotswolds, Adam Henson works hard looking after his native pigs, which are some of the rarest breeds in the UK.
EMMERDALE,ITV1, 7.30pm
Joe is fearful as the harassment campaign against him continues with an envelope containing a blackmail demand for £100,000 being placed in the Home Farm kitchen. Unsure of who else to trust, Joe shows the blackmail demand to Sam, but he’s none-the-wiser. When Ross confronts Robert about the missing weed, Robert threatens to cancel the land deal with Moira, forcing Ross to back down. Forced to take Gabby’s car to Kammy at the garage, Vinny faces unavoidable questions about his sexuality.
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – The sound of children at play echoes through the verdant lanes of one of the dozens of refugee camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, a densely populated coastal town in southeast Bangladesh.
Just for a moment, the sounds manage to soften the harsh living conditions faced by the more than one million people who live here in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Described as the most persecuted people on the planet, the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh may now be one of the most forgotten populations in the world, eight years after being ethnically cleansed from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar by a predominantely Buddhist military regime.
“Cox’s Bazar is ground zero for the impact of budget cuts on people in desperate need,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the sprawling camps in May.
The UN chief’s visit followed United States President Donald Trump’s gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has stalled several key projects in the camps, and the United Kingdom announcing cuts to foreign aid in order to increase defence spending.
Seated outside his makeshift bamboo hut, Jahid Alam told Al Jazeera how, before being forced to become a refugee, he had worked as a farmer and also fished for a living in the Napura region of his native Myanmar. It was back then, in 2016, that he first noticed his leg swell up for no apparent reason.
“I was farming and suddenly felt this intense urge to itch my left leg,” Alam said. “My leg soon turned red and began swelling up. I rushed home and tried to put some ice on it. But it didn’t help.”
A local doctor prescribed an ointment, but the itch continued, and so did the swelling.
He soon found it difficult to stand or walk and could no longer work, becoming dependent on his family members.
A year later, when Myanmar’s military began burning Rohingya homes in his village and torturing the women, he decided to send his family to Bangladesh.
Alam stayed behind to look after the cows on his land. But the military soon threatened him into leaving too and joining his family in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The 53-year-old has been treated by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, in the Kutupalong region of Cox’s Bazar since arriving, but amputation of his leg seems likely. While some doctors have said he has Elephantiasis – an infection that causes enlargement and swelling of limbs – a final diagnosis is yet to be made.
Along with the disease, Alam has to also deal with stigma due to his disability.
“They call me ‘langhra’(lame) when they see I can’t walk properly,” he said.
But, he adds: “If God has given me this disease and disability, he also gave me the opportunity to come to this camp and try to recover. In the near future I know I can start a new and better life.”
Jahid Alam at the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
‘The word “Amma” gives me hope’
Seated in a dimly lit room in a small hut about a 10-minute walk from Alam’s shelter, Jahena Begum hopes aid organisations will continue supporting the camps and particularly people with disabilities.
Her daughter Sumaiya Akter, 23, and sons, Harez, 19, and Ayas, 21, are blind and have a cognitive disability that prevents them from speaking clearly. They are largely unaware of their surroundings.
“Their vision slowly began fading as they became teenagers,” Begum says.
“It was very difficult to watch, and healthcare facilities in Myanmar could not help,” said the 50-year-old mother as she patted her daughter’s leg.
The young girl giggled, unaware of what was going on around her.
Begum’s family arrived in Cox’s Bazar about nine months ago after the military in Myanmar burned their house down.
“We made it to the camps with the help of relatives. But life has been very hard for me,” said Begum, telling how she had single-handedly brought up her children since her husband’s death eight years ago.
Doctors from MSF have given her children spectacles and have begun running scans to understand the root cause of their disability.
“Right now, they express everything by making sounds. But the one word they speak, which is ‘Amma’, meaning mother, shows me that they at least recognise me,” Begum said.
“The word ‘Amma’ gives me hope and strength to continue trying to treat them. I want a better future for my children.”
Jahena Begum, first left, with her three children, Sumaiya Akter, second from left, Ayas, third from left, and Harez, right, during an interview in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, earlier this month [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
‘The pain isn’t just physical – it’s emotional’
Clad in a blue and pink striped collared shirt and a striped brown longyi – the cloth woven around the waist and worn by men and women in Myanmar – Anowar Shah told of fleeing Myanmar to save his life, on top of losing a limb to a mine blast.
Shah said he was collecting firewood in his hometown Labada Prian Chey in Myanmar when his leg was blown off by the landmine last year.
Myanmar is among the world’s deadliest countries for landmine and unexploded ordnance casualties, according to a 2024 UN report, with more than 1,000 victims recorded in 2023 alone – a number that surpassed all other nations.
“Those were the longest, most painful days of my life,” said the 25-year-old Shah, who now needs crutches to get around.
“Losing my leg shattered everything. I went from being someone who provided and protected, to someone who depends on others just to get through the day. I can’t move freely, can’t work, can’t even perform simple tasks alone,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve become a burden to the people I love. The pain isn’t just physical – it’s emotional, it’s deep. I keep asking myself, ‘Why did this happen to me?’”
Anowar Shah is a victim of a landmine explosion in Myanmar and lives in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [Courtesy of Anowar Shah]
More than 30 refugees in the camps in Bangladesh have lost limbs in landmine explosions, leaving them disabled and dependent on others.
All parties to the armed conflict in Myanmar have used landmines in some capacity, said John Quinley, director of rights organisation Fortify Rights, in Myanmar.
“We know the Myanmar junta has used landmines over many years to bolster their bases. They also lay them in civilian areas around villages and towns that they have occupied and fled,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abdul Hashim, 25, who resides in Camp 21 in Cox’s Bazar, described how stepping on a landmine in February 2024 “drastically altered his life”.
“I have become dependent on others for even the simplest daily tasks. Once an active contributor to my family, I now feel like a burden,” he said.
Since arriving in the camp, Hashim has been in a rehabilitation programme at the Turkish Field Hospital where he receives medication and physical rehabilitation that involves balance exercises, stump care, and hygiene education.
He has also been assessed for a prosthetic limb which currently costs about 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka ($412). The cost for such limbs is borne by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“Despite the trauma and hardship, I hold onto some hope. I dream of receiving a prosthetic leg soon, which would allow me to regain some independence and find work to support my family,” Hashim said.
So far, a total of 14 prosthetic limbs have been distributed and fitted for camp inhabitants by the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, who have expertise in producing the limbs in orthotic workshops outside the refugee camps.
Both Hashim and Shah are a part of the organisation’s rehabilitation programme, which has been providing gait training to help them adapt to the future, regular use of prosthetic limbs.
Tough decisions for aid workers
Seeking to ensure refugees in the camps are well supported and can live better lives after fleeing persecution, aid workers are currently having to make tough decisions due to foreign aid cuts.
“We are having to decide between feeding people and providing education and healthcare due to aid cuts,” a Bangladeshi healthcare worker who requested anonymity, for fear his comment could jeopardise future aid from the US, told Al Jazeera.
Quinley of Fortify Rights pointed out that while there are huge funding gaps because of the aid cuts, the Rohingya refugee response should not fall on any one government and should be a collective regional responsibility.
“There needs to be a regional response, particularly for countries in Southeast Asia, to give funding,” he said.
“Countries connected to the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in the Middle East could also give a lot more meaningful support,” he said.
He also recommended working with local humanitarian partners, “whether it’s Bangladeshi nationals or whether it’s Rohingya refugee groups themselves” since they know how to help their communities the best.
“Their ability to access people that need support is at the forefront, and they should be supported from governments worldwide,” he said.
For the estimated one million refugees in Cox’s Bazar, urgent support is needed at this time, when funds grow ever scarce.
According to a Joint Response Plan drawn up for the Rohingya, in 2024, just 30 percent of funding was received of a total $852.4m that was needed by the refugees.
As of May 2025, against an overall appeal for $934.5m for the refugees, just 15 percent received funding.
Cutting the aid budgets for the camps is a “short-sighted policy”, said Blandine Bouniol, deputy director of advocacy at Humanity & Inclusion humanitarian group.
It will, Bouniol said, “have a devastating impact on people”.
People walk past a wall topped with barbed wire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
